


Rachel Amber and The Time Her Girlfriend's BFF Came Back

by spiderly (gorb)



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: (that character is Jefferson), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chloe Price Stayed at Blackwell, Everybody Lives, F/F, Ficlet, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Insecurity, Mild Language, Minor Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price, No Mark Jefferson, POV Rachel, Post-Before The Storm, Rachel Amber Lives, except Jefferson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 18:18:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16101140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorb/pseuds/spiderly
Summary: Rachel has the habit of stalking Chloe's old best friend on the internet. Just to see what she's like... and why Chloe liked her so much.This becomes a problem when she finds out that Max is coming back to Arcadia Bay, and that Chloe has no idea.





	Rachel Amber and The Time Her Girlfriend's BFF Came Back

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic, EVER! Thanks so much to my girlfriend (@korrassatos on tumblr) for proofreading and so much more. <3
> 
> Also thanks to @fairymascot on tumblr for expressing enough interest to get my ass in gear and get this done!
> 
> This fic references William's death and Jefferson's death, just so we're clear. Be warned. Teen and up because of that and a bit of cursing.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Rachel's habit of e-stalking Chloe's old best friend was mostly a waste of time. Not today.

She was lying in bed making her usual rounds--that is, checking all of Max's various social media--when she saw it. Usually what Max posted wasn't that interesting, and it was more of an idle curiosity for Rachel to see what she was up to. She hadn't told Chloe about this habit, and she had no plans to. Rachel could tell how much her girlfriend missed her old friend, but bringing her up only re-opened old wounds.

In light of that, it wouldn't be pleasant to break this to Chloe.

The crickets chirped on outside, muffled slightly by the exterior walls. Outside it was a balmy summer night, but the Ambers kept the house frigid. As much as Rachel hated being home, her room was as cozy as she could make it, and it was lit up with the things she loved. She let out a breath and put her phone aside, turning over to stare at her map of the fifty states. Chloe had written a quote on it a few years ago-- _the corners of the world our mere prologue._ It always made Rachel feel a little less lost.

Looking at that scribbled ink, Rachel made up her mind. This was too important to keep secret.

She drafted a text:

_There's something I need to talk to you about… you're probably going to want to be alone. Pick me up tomorrow?_

She kept the screen on, hoping she'd get a quick reply. Luckily, as she often did only for Rachel, Chloe texted back immediately:

_sure. i'll be by around noon_

Hm. Laconic as always. Rachel saved a screenshot of Max's post and tried to put it out of her mind, at least for now.

***

The next day--Wednesday, or was it Thursday? It didn't matter--Chloe came early, skidding to a stop in front of the Amber house like always. There was never any need to honk; the truck made awful noise, more due to Chloe's driving than the partial disintegration of the vehicle. Every time, Rachel could hear it coming up the street before it even arrived. She was out the door and in the passenger seat in seconds.

Chloe smiled nervously before taking off. There was a moment of silence. Rachel wasn't sure where they were going, but it wasn't her house or Chloe's, and that was the most important thing.

The car droned unevenly on. After some time, Chloe glanced sideways.

"So… what did you want to tell me?"

Rachel kept her guard up. She didn't want to have this conversation in a moving vehicle. "You should really park somewhere first," she answered.

"If you're going to tell me you have a crush on me, I already know," Chloe said, half-smiling. She was trying to lighten the mood, and Rachel was about to bring it down, hard. "Ha ha," she said, not actually laughing. She hated ruining her girlfriend's happiness like this.

"Okay, okay, I'll park somewhere. Special requests?"

Rachel watched a car skid past. "Anywhere private."

Chloe continued to tease her uncertainly on the way there, but complied. A few minutes later, they pulled into the junkyard.

"Ok! Captain's turning off the seatbelt sign!" Chloe said, making a show of pulling the key out of the ignition. "Seriously, Rachel, what's wrong?" She folded her arms and leaned back. "You seem off."

It was true, of course. Rachel was an expert at hiding how she felt, but Chloe had gotten much better at reading her than most people. Dammit.

Still, Rachel could read Chloe even better, and she knew that tone of voice. It was the one Chloe couldn't help but use when the worst possibilities were creeping in on her. The one she used when she was starting to wonder if she had ruined something big. This wasn't Chloe's fault, and as much as she didn't want to confront the truth, Rachel couldn't let her think for another second that it was.

Rachel turned to face her. "Chloe…" she took a breath.

"…It's about Max."

Chloe's face changed instantly. Her expression wasn't angry, as Rachel initially thought it might be; it was closer to disappointment, or annoyance. This particular part of her past wasn't something that Chloe had expected to deal with today.

"Oh-kay then…" she said, throwing her hands up, "lay it on me."

"Well…" Rachel started. She was glad to see Chloe less affected than she expected, but she hadn't planned for it. She paused to try to find the right words.

"I don't know if she was going to tell you, but… well, I found something on Max's page… here, let me just show you."

She unlocked her phone and found the screenshot. Biting her lip, she silently handed the phone to Chloe, who read the post aloud, in an almost-mocking tone:

_"Looking forward to spending my senior year at Blackwell! Still bummed that I never got to see Mark Jefferson teach. What an inspiration."_

It took a second for the other shoe to drop.

"BLACKWELL??"

Okay, scratch being unaffected.

"SERIOUSLY?? She's coming back and didn't think to tell me?? And, hold up, who the fuck is 'Mark Jefferson?'" Chloe asked, as if Rachel would know. Wait, maybe she did.

"Jefferson…" she murmured, mulling it over. Where had she heard that name before?

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Do you remember that guy who was supposed to come teach at Blackwell a while back? They had picked him out of that elite list and everything, but then he--" she stopped, realizing where the topic would lead.

"He what?" Chloe asked, staring persistently at Rachel. It was beginning to get hot in the parked car. She gave up; she wouldn't be able to avoid it now.

"Well…" she said, reluctantly, "he… died."

"Wait, what?? I don't remember that at all."

"Yeah…" Rachel began cautiously. "I guess it was during that year you were suspended. He was… well…" She bit her lip. "…He was hit by a car." She took a breath and glanced at Chloe, but Chloe didn't appear to react. "Apparently… he was trying to take a picture of a deer on some hairpin turn and this guy came around the curve, and… he saw the deer so he swerved but he didn't see… well… you know."

Chloe didn't respond. Rachel thought she saw her phone shake a bit in Chloe's hands, but Chloe didn't seem to be looking at it as much as past it. Better not to dwell on this. Some days, Chloe would talk openly about her father; on other days, like this one, anything that reminded her of what happened would completely close her off.

"So…" she said, after pausing a little too long. The heat was getting overwhelming. "Yeah… a lot of the photography kids were really upset. I guess he's pretty famous. Or… was pretty famous. Victoria didn't shut up about him for weeks."

Chloe put Rachel's phone on the dash, taking her hat off and running her hands through her dyed hair. Rachel could see her turning over thoughts and anxieties. Was that the sort of person Max had become during the past few years in Portland? Some Victoria-esque clone who cared more about rubbing elbows with famous people than about her friends? From Chloe's perspective, it was definitely possible.

"So," said Chloe, quietly, "I guess… she forgot about me."

"Maybe not!" Rachel said quickly, trying hard to be reassuring while sweating through her shirt. "This has only been up for a day. Maybe she was going to tell you later?"

Chloe kicked her foot against the floor, irritated. "When?? When she gets here? She knew, so why wouldn't she tell me? 'Hey, Chloe, by the way, I'm coming back! Sorry I ignored you for five years!'" She gritted her teeth. "You know this is the same shit she pulled when she left? I found out she was leaving MONTHS before her family moved, and she told me at the last fucking minute." Her fists balled up in her hair.

Rachel scooted closer. "I know," she said. She didn't know exactly what had happened, though she craved every detail. More truthfully than she knew the situation, she knew what Chloe was feeling. "You don't have to talk to her if you don't want to."

"Don't I, though?" She shrugged her shoulders jerkily. "We're going to the same fucking school! It's not that big! I'm gonna have to see her every day, and then what?!" She seemed close to tears now.

Rachel grasped one of Chloe's hands and pulled it gently away from her blue hair, pressing it to her own mouth instead. "I don't know," she admitted, softly. "But, Chloe, you can't just… blow up at her, you know that, right?"

Chloe sighed and looked out the side window.

Rachel persisted. "Chloe… we're so close. Just one more year and we can get out of here. Don't let her be the reason you don't graduate, ok?"

Silence. Chloe just kept staring out of the window.

***

Over the next few weeks, the weather changed very little as the school year approached. Rachel never quite got used to the temperatures in Arcadia Bay--to her, it was funny to watch people act like it was scorching outside when the peak heat stayed barely above 70 degrees.

Chloe, meanwhile, was "roasting," but that was probably because she never seemed to wear any outfits that didn’t involve jeans. Rachel never asked her why. It would be almost bizarre to see her in anything else. It was hard to understand sometimes, though, when the hottest place in Arcadia Bay was the interior of Chloe's truck.

They spent most of their time that summer in Chloe's room, sheltering from the "heat" and listening to music, or doing nothing in particular. Rachel treasured that. A lot of the people she hung out with expected her to constantly be charming and quick-witted and act like some kind of leader. Though she did enjoy it, she got tired, at times, keeping up with that persona. Around Chloe, she could relax completely.

Still, the question of how and when they would deal with Max's transfer loomed over them.

Rachel brought it up from time to time, but she could sense Chloe didn't want to talk about it, and eventually she stopped. They had better things to look forward to; Rachel was looking at colleges, and Chloe had begun looking at mechanics' apprenticeships. From there, finding a place they could live together would just be a matter of putting the pieces together. And after that… who knows? Their plans to leave Arcadia Bay were finally almost in reach, and senior year was just their last stop on the way out. To Rachel, the worst part of this new complication was just not being able to talk with Chloe about it.

Before long, the first day of class arrived. As Chloe predicted, Max never told her she would be there.

***

It wasn't hard to arrive early for school when it didn't start until 10 AM. Even so, Chloe had a tendency to sleep in. Rachel was surprised to see her there already when she arrived, but less surprised when she got closer and noticed the bags under Chloe's eyes.

"Hey, you sleep okay?" Rachel asked, already knowing the answer. Chloe only pulled a corner of her mouth down and shook her head slowly. She was hunched over on a bench, and she looked like she might be sick. Rachel sat down silently and put her hand on Chloe's back. Now wasn't the time to say "I told you so", but she made a mental note to bring it up later.

Time passed slowly for the next few minutes. Rachel chatted with the friends and acquaintances who approached her, but kept her hand where it was. Truthfully, she was more preoccupied than she let on, but she had to maintain a sense of calm and normality. She was silently willing Victoria not to walk towards them when--

"Rachel."

Chloe's voice stopped her thought process immediately. Following Chloe's gaze, she saw a girl across the yard. That must be her.

For an art student, Max wasn’t dressed with much style. The majority of the student body tried to make an impression their first day of school; hers would likely be "forgettable." To Chloe, though, Rachel knew she was the exact opposite. Unconsciously, she grasped at the fabric of Chloe's shirt.

"I'm going to talk to her," Chloe said, starting to get up. The movement made Rachel realize how hard she had been holding on.

"Wait--" she started. Her eyes locked with Chloe's as she struggled to think of some reason to keep her from leaving. "Are you… sure you're ready?"

Chloe's expression was fixed and unreadable. Rachel remembered how upset she had gotten in the junkyard, and she prayed that she wasn't about to do any kind of irreversible damage.

"Yeah," Chloe replied flatly. "I'll be fine."

And with that, she turned and walked away.

Rachel watched her go, unwaveringly. She wanted to rush over, and she might have to… she was afraid Chloe would be overcome with hate for Max, but another part of her was afraid that a completely different emotion could take over.

She saw Max look up and startle a bit. Evidently Max didn't recognize Chloe at first, though they were too far away for Rachel to hear. Chloe's back was turned, so she could only guess what was going on by Max's face. Right now, that face was broadcasting pure nervous energy. Fuck.

The tension between them was palpable and Rachel was on the edge of her seat, scared of what might happen but not wanting to interfere, not wanting to take a moment away from Chloe that was so important to her. God, she wished she could hear their conversation. She wished she could put herself right in the middle of it, interject, keep Chloe calm, keep Chloe hers.

That was when she saw Max tilt her head and nod in response to something. And Chloe turned sideways to face Rachel again, shouting something, beckoning her to come over.

Rachel nearly tripped over herself in her hurry to get up. She didn't have any idea what was going on, or what she should say. But Chloe needed her, and that was enough.


End file.
